Historical Authenticity: Writing the Truth of the Past

I attempt with every historical romance novel I write to bring historical authenticity to the page. I use common vernacular of the time—within limits. There are truly some words I will never write even though those words were accepted across all socio-economic strata and commonly used. I also hope I portray the characters within my books as human—flawed, yes; products of their time, most certainly; but still with the same emotions, dreams, hopes, and aspirations that are shared with humanity today. Throughout the course of human history we, as a species, have sought love and acceptance for who we are, longed for a safe place to call home, desired a better life for our children, believed that we could do better than before, dared to articulate how to do better and often times, paid for those words and that audacity in blood.

I write within the time frame of the American Civil War and the aftermath of that war so I have to address the elephant in the room. My characters come complete with the thoughts and mores of the period, which included the majority belief that slavery was an abhorrent practice. Slavery was just as wrong then as it is now. Slavery still exists, though we use the more euphemistic term: human trafficking. The trafficking of children is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar industry that absolutely must be eradicated from the face of this planet.

If you want information on how to help end the absolutely heinous practice of child sex slavery go to ourrescue.org.